April 2, 2010
Bill McKibben, a writer, an activist and the founder of 350.org[1], spoke at the Monterey Institute on April 2 in an event titled “A Reading by Bill McKibben”. Thanks to the MIIS Advancement office, I was introduced to McKibben prior to the event and had a chance to briefly say hello. Bill touched upon UN involvement, the recent climate change summit in Denmark, and of course, the movement that 350 initiated and organized on October 24, 2009; which motivated people from all over the world (from the Himalayan peaks to the Great Barrier Reef to your community) to assemble and send a clear message to world leaders: “the solutions to climate change must be equitable, they must be grounded in science, and they must meet the scale of the crisis2.”
I barely remember few speakers I’ve heard so far who feel as much passion as Bill feels about the subject matter of his interest. It was obvious how strongly he believes in his work and his dreams to build a planet with a tolerable carbon limit. I believe that makes him and the 350 movement different from others; because Bill has a target which is reachable and he conveys a clear message to the peoples of this planet as his target audience. McKibben believes it is political will that is needed most to achieve the target.
But what made me the most excited and emotional was Bill bringing up the fact about how vulnerable Bangladesh’s existence is due to climate change and briefly told his story of visiting Bangladesh 4-5 years ago. As he had severely suffered from Dengue fever while in Bangladesh, he joked with the audience “I highly recommend not getting dengue”. He continued “and I believe it is completely unfair, with 150 million people in Bangladesh, as much as half of the US population; when the UN tried to measure how much carbon dioxide Bangladesh emits, it was impossible to get a number, it’s a rounding error in the calculation”. It was a good reinforcement for the audience when he mentioned how 4% of the world population is emitting 25% of the total carbon dioxide.
I am touched, and even emotional, as I am writing this blog now. I am feeling the passion- the passion for a safe and secure planet. I am appreciative on behalf of my country men and would like to thank Bill for the movement, for bringing up the issues and concerns to the world. As he described Bangladesh to the audience, as a wonderful, fertile land that feeds its people, it made me cry and feel grateful to that fellow American as I got to listen to stories about my country sitting tens of thousands of miles away.
We, as global citizens, have to act now. As McKibben said, ”this is the hardest challenge that humans have ever faced, the level of transition we have to make is enormous… It’s a time limited problem, we don’t have an unlimited number of years to solve this. It is a great thing that a global movement is underway and I am extra ordinarily thankful to the people here at Monterey for making that happen”.
[1] 350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that science and justice demand- http://www.350.org/mission
Sounds like Mr. McKibben’s presentation was very inspirational and brought just the kind perspective that we all need!